Marcotting of palms

Mr Pisaar, Curator of the Hortus Botanicus at Amsterdam, told me they had indeed, not long ago, successfully marcotted a specimen labelled Chamaedorea ernesti-augusti Wendl. The circumstances with this palm were extremely favourable. Its stem is about 3 cm thick with rather short bamboo-like nodes and internodes and below each node there are along the whole stem two swollen places which can produce a node. The marcotte they used was composed of fibres and Sphagnum and did not exceed 15 cm diameter. After about half a year it was judged that sufficient roots had developed and the apical half was separated, while simultaneously the foliage was trimmed by removal of two leaves. At present the plant thrives well and has produced inflorescences. They have also tried to ”treat” a tree fern in this way but unsuccessfully.-- v. St.